In a small tent, Darius was being treated by the physicians who had come along with the reinforcements.
His entire arms and legs were bandaged. He also suffered from a serious injury on his forehead which was now bandaged.
"You just need to rest for a day and you will be fine, nothing to worry about. However, I recommend you to rest for a few days since you lost a lot of blood." One of the physicians told him after completing their examination.
As the physicians went out, a few rank 5 warriors came inside the tent. They were also Lieutenants of the empire just like him.
"Congratulations Darius, I am guessing you will be heavily rewarded this time for saving the eldest princess!!" one of them said excitedly.
The exact details of the incident had spread to everyone who had come as reinforcements. They knew the eldest princess would not have survived if not for Darius holding back four rank 5 bears all by himself.
So they were guessing that the emperor would reward him heavily!
"I guess yeah," Darius replied absent-mindedly.
He recalled the day he met the princess. He was 20 years old at that time while she was 14 years old.
The eldest princess was visiting a village outside the imperial capital and he was one of the escorts. He was a rank 4 warrior at that time.
An evil cultivator had been hiding in that place and attacked the princess as soon as they came in sight. He was an extremely powerful rank 4 warrior and since Darius had just become a rank 4 warrior at that time, he was at a disadvantage.
However, he bravely held back the evil cultivator long enough till the other escorts arrived and finally killed him. He had been heavily injured in the process as well.
Since that incident, he was told to be one of the escorts who guarded the eldest princess whenever she went out.
Throughout the last 6 years, he had seen the eldest princess grow up. Everyone now regarded him as one of the important confidants of the eldest princess.
It was probably because of this that he was always called to escort the eldest princess.
'That's right, am one of the confidants for eldest princess. Maybe am a bit more talented than others but that doesn't change anything. ' he thought to himself.
Honestly, he had grown to like the princess over the years.
It was not that she was extremely beautiful but yes she was clever, planned things carefully, and throughout the years had treated him pretty well.
He personally believed she would be a perfect candidate for the throne of the empire.
He didn't know why but to him her smile looked like the prettiest thing in the world.
He didn't know why or how but he had fallen for her. Of course, he never revealed it to anyone otherwise he would probably be dead by now.
He knew he had the potential to be a transcendent however that doesn't mean the royal family would accept him. They have many transcendents for their empire.
Unless he becomes a really powerful transcendent, he probably would never be able to confess to the princess.
'Transcendents...' his eyes wavered.
All warriors used special techniques to absorb energy from the air. The faster a person absorbed energy from the air, the more talented he was said to be.
The energy combined with their body to make them stronger!
In fact it also increased their life spans!
Normal people and rank 1 to rank 3 warriors have a maximum of 100 years of lifespan.
Rank 4 to rank 6 warriors are said to have a maximum lifespan of around 150 years .
And rank 7 to rank 9 warriors are said to have a maximum life span of around 200 years!
And above rank 9 warriors came Transcendents!
Normal people didn't know much about them. They only knew that they were different from the rest of the rank 1 to rank 9 warriors.
It is said Transcendents have God like powers. They could bring rain and flatten mountains!!
Ofcourse all these are rumors however a fact that everyone believed in was that Transcendents have God like powers.
Darius was told by the army higher ups that he had the talent to become a transcendent! It was also because of this that he got better treatment than others.
However that was all. He would still not be able to compare to the five top families who also had transcendent warriors among them not to mention the royal family of the empire who had numerous transcendents serving under them.
Darius was just an orphan and his only background was being a Lieutenant in the army.
'What am I thinking? I should just focus on getting stronger and protecting the princess. Otherwise, I may not even be able to protect the princess if something like what happened today happens again. '
"DARIUS?! DARIUS!!" one of the rank 5 Lieutenants in his tent was calling out to him.
"Yeah yeah?" Darius came out of his thoughts.
"Are you feeling sick? We called you numerous times, but you weren't replying!"
"Oh uh excuse me am still recovering, my head isn't feeling alright."
"Oh of course you should take rest now, we will come in the morning."
They soon went out and he was left alone in the tent.
It was nighttime. They were on their way back to the imperial capital however they had to stop for a while since it was night.
Warriors' senses increase as their rank increases. For rank 5 and rank 4 warriors, it was pretty easy to move during the night. However, right now they were escorting the eldest princess and the chances of a successful ambush increased at night.
So they decided to stay for the night at one place and continue their journey the next morning.
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